Goodies and Baddies

Non-Governmental Organisations often are assumed to act upon universally recognised moral imperatives based on a shared ‘public interest’. The voluntary sector in quantitative terms is booming in the UK with 88 million ‘volunteer hours’ given annually. However the distribution of ‘free labour’ for recognisable community benefit is divided confusingly between formal charity, informal volunteering, and autonomous civic participation (volunteering as activism). All spectrums of ‘free labour’ are adapting to new ‘local’ interests defined by culture and personal interest rather than territory. Although government is dissolving the autonomy of the voluntary sector, truly autonomous groups seem inevitably to undermine their ideologies when adopting mass politics. Yet, communication technologies are enabling formal, informal and activist charitable groups to mobilise in a manner which can influence radical social change.